Morso

This place is closed.

CLOSED!!!
NO LONGER IN OPERATION!!!
(Walked here from the sub and whoopsie no restaurant)

WHY ARE YOU CLOSED??? I walked a good 7 – 8 blocks in 6″ platform heels only to reach your doorstep and find you shut down. FML. Why, God, why?

Great bar service! Had the manhattan alla turka which was a fantastic wintry drink. Partner and I had four cheese pide, borek, and the pastry sticks– all that we had was incredible.
Most notably, Boris the bartender made great suggestions per food and he looks great too :)

I came here three times in one week. I do that with things I discover that i really like, I binge.
This is a very solid restaurant for a date or a smallish group. Ideal for 2 – 4 people. The octopus is perfectly prepared in every dish, all of the pilafs are moist and hearty, the flatbreads are unique (the lamb one is to die for), and there are some good, interesting cocktails. Also, wine is half off on Mondays.
The reason I don’t give it five stars is because the second time I went, they were out of a number of ingredients. Also, when the service is good, it’s great, but at times it’s inconsistent. For a restaurant that small, it should be easier to get the attention of a server at all times… Also, the order they bring out the food seems to have no rhyme or reason.
All in all, really good place. Definitely try it out if you’re in Georgetown.

Splendid fast lunch option in Georgetown.
The Pides (flatbread — almost like pizza) and wraps and salads were all fantastic.
The next door restaurant was closed for lunch so they let us sit in there and eat — it looks great and it might even tempt me to eat out in Georgetown in the evening.
The express /​take out place has only a few seats, and some of the window seats were taken up by Georgetown Cupcake eating seat bandits. But I forgave them.
Only minor complaint is that there is nothing express about the burger they offer — it took 25 minutes to come and Thing2 was not that happy with it — so stay away from the burger and you’ll be fine.

This place is the bomb. It’s swanky, the service is good, the décor is warm and modern, and the prices are reasonable.
We got the triple hummus which was really good (regular, mint, and roasted red pepper and garlic) and their pita bread is OFF THE CHAIN.
We also got the lamb sliders, which were very tasty and done perfectly; the octopus which had amazing texture (but the flavor was a little bit bland); and the beef manti which was pretty good, but the cream sauce was very, very rich.
We also ordered 2 of the turquitos, which were a great drink. I’d definitely come back here again and try more things.

Morso is pretty swanky — the kind of place that makes you feel shiny and belonging in Georgetown.
The food and service are pretty good, but this place still has some kinks to work out and a ways to go before it can compare to its similarly purposed cross-​town Mediterranean tapas rival, Cava, which is better and a better value, although far from cheap.
The tapas run from just under $ 10 to about $ 25. We shared six among four people, which was just about the right amount of food, and it came to about $ 70, without any drinks. One of the six was a complimentary dish they brought out just to be nice, which was really sweet.
Oddly, half our menus were different from the others, with several different items, different prices on the same items and some items that they didn’t serve; which made it a little difficult to choreograph our picks since it’s supposed to be kind of family-​style. All the menus also had some kind of defect — a bite-​sized chunk taken out of the corner, a greasy smudge, notes made in pencil in the margins, like somebody thought it was their own personal copy to keep.
We ordered the hummus trio, which was good and came with heaps of puffy pita like I’ve never seen before; the beet salad, which was misleadingly stingy on the beets, coming with three slices and a tower of tasteless greens; a shrimp Mediterranean casserole, which was pretty good; chicken kabob, which was good but really small for the price; and lamb kabobs.

Morso was phenomenal.
I made a reservation day of for a party of 7, and you don’t have to have your whole party there to be seated. We probably could have gone without it, but with any group over 4 I didn’t feel like chancing it…
We ordered wine, the hummus trio and the mediterranean cheese platter as an appetizer. They will also give you tzatziki and this amazing pita bread to start. Our waiter was incredibly attentive, very helpful with recommending menu items, knew when to come by and when to let us all continue chatting. He apologized profusely when he told us they were out of the manti, there’s no way we could have even been annoyed about it.
We ordered one of the pizzas, the octopus, kibbe, kofte sliders, and moussaka. Everything was incredible! The portions are small, as it is mezze style, but after the apps, we were all pretty full. We all shared and loved the food. The shell of the kibbe is a little thicker than I am used to, but was great nonetheless.
For seven people, including multiple glasses of wine, our bill was about $ 360. Had we not had so much wine, it would have been significantly cheaper.
This may be my new favorite place in Georgetown to eat…

Now that Morso Express has a 50% student discount on Mon/​Tues, I decided to try it out for the first time ever. I went at 11:30 am and was surprised to find it locked. To hide from the cold, I took refuge in the Georgetown Mall and checked its opening hours. It opened at 11 am! I went back to check if I wasn’t delusional and after hearing the door, the owner came and unlocked it. Who forgets to unlock their restaurant? Morso Express is empty enough normally… you shouldn’t lock people out who actually want to come. After that, the owner was quite nice, although he seemed a bit bewildered that I knew about the student discount, acting as if he wanted to keep it a secret… Maybe because it was only recently announced? Now onto the food: I ordered a Green Pide which was quite delicious. The crust was perfectly flaky without falling apart. I would definitely go again but not sure if the Pide is worth the $ 8 without the student discount. The seating is a bit awkward and not made for large groups.

The food was great. But what a cluster.
My mom and I went in and ordered a lamb wrap and a veggie pide. I upgraded the pide to include an organic egg for $ 1. Then after us, entered a party of 2 and a party of 4. After the party of 2 got their wraps, the cashier came up to us and said that they are out of the lamb for the wrap and the swiss chard for the pide. So we BOTH have to reorder while the 2 that came in after us are happily munching away. I ask if they have the lamb for the pide, since they didn’t have it for the wrap. «Yes.» So we order a chicken wrap and a lamb pide and I ask for my egg to be runny, to which I get a response «What do you mean by runny.» But let’s forget about that little part for now.
So the party of four is getting their food, and we’re still waiting. Then the cashier comes up to us and says that they are out of the lamb for the pide DESPITE THAT I HAD ASKED IF THEY WERE OUT OF IT BEFORE I ORDERED. Now my choices are chicken or shrimp. I AM P-​Oed. I order the chicken pide.
The two girls next to us are finishing their food when ours comes out. But the wrap that we ordered wasn’t a wrap. It was just a cardboard container with the ingredients inside. Lettuce in one corner, cheese in another corner, etc. I ask What’s UP? They are out of the wraps! (Keep in mind that the two girls that ordered after us and part of the party of four that ordered after us had wraps and got their order just fine. Instead of telling us, they just serve us the insides without the wrap. And my pide gets to me WITHOUT the egg that I paid for.
Needless to say, I turn into the Incredible Hulk. Because 20 minutes after we ordered, and 2 botched orders later, they still messed up our order. The owner scrambled to go next door for some wraps and put my mom’s food in wrap-​form. Gave her some extra hummus and gave me my $ 1 + tax for my missing egg.
The place was yummy but I will NEVER go back.

While the food here was good, the service was RIDICULOUSLY SLOW. My boyfriend and I came out to have a romantic dinner, but we were planning to go to a party afterward. We sat and the waitress took about 10 minutes to come to hand us menus and waters. We ordered after another 10 minutes or so … and then the our first course came about a half-​hour later. I thought appetizers were supposed to be easy to make … anyway, the appetizer I was brought was the *wrong* one, so I had to send it back. Another 20 minutes passes before my chosen appetizer comes. … At this point, my boyfriend and I were wondering how we were going to get through the 4-​course dinner we had ordered.
About 3 hours later, we finally left the place. The dinner was good, but the overall experience was ruined by the bad/​slow service.
Two-​and-​a-​half. The food in itself probably deserves a 4, but I don’t think I would be back.

After reading some of the reviews on Unilocal,we went in to Morso to celebrate my wife’s birthday a couple of days ago.
Morso is right in the heart of Georgetown (close to G’Town Cupcakes) and we have probably walked past it a 100 times, but we had never noticed the place! Probably this has something to do with the fact that only a small doorway and a small sign on the corner of the building announces Morso’s existence. Since we went on a weekday, parking was easy; a quick hop and a jump and we were at Morso. Morso’s décor can be described as urban-​chic and the whole place felt very modern yet intimate.
We were seated very quickly and our servers were friendly and pleasant. I’m really glad that I read the reviews on Unilocal before we went because we knew exactly what to order. For our appetizer we got the Babaganoush, which was good but not excellent. [As a side note, one of the ways in which my wife and I like to ‘baseline’ a restaurant is to order something tried and tested, and see how well the restaurant performs]. Before I forget, I should mention that once seated we were also immediately served with some fresh bread which comes with three different types of dip. VERY yummy! On the basis of the Babaganoush alone, I think I would have rated the place 3 or maybe 4 stars. But then the entrée’s really made up for the appetizer.
For our main course we ordered the lamb sliders and the chicken kebabs (served with pilaf) [Thanks Unilocal!]. Both these dishes were simply awesome. The lamb was succulent and left us wanting more. The chicken kebabs (which we have eaten a million times before at other restaurants) was unbelievably tender and squirted all sorts of flavorful juices in our mouths as we ate them :) Fabulous stuff! The portions weren’t too big, but they weren’t too small either. As another reviewer pointed out, you wont see those ginormous portions you see at other kebab places. But the portions were big enough for us to feel full while not feeling like we’re waddling out of there stuffed.
The service was quick, professional and friendly. The patrons at other tables that evening also seemed to be having themselves a good time. The music played all evening but it wasn’t too loud — meaning you could easily have a conversation with your fellow buddies while still having something to listen to.
Bottomline: while we didnt order dessert or order any wine (so your mileage might vary), I’d really recommend Morso to my friends and fellow Unilocal’ers. Its definitely worth the visit. Hope this helps.

Definitely go here for the food! We had the Turkish Restaurant Week menu (4 dinner courses, $ 25) and everything– EVERYTHING– was fabulous. We had ezme, a spicy tomatoe topping and hummus to start, served with super hot, fresh pita bread. The hummus was easily the best I have ever had, and I’ve had a LOT of hummus. The ezme was also awesome, so much so that I ended up eating a ton of it. (It was my friend’s pick. Sorry!) Next was a pide course. I had the veggie one, with egglant, yellow peppers and I think zucchini as well as Turkish cheese (haloumi?).
The ambiance isn’t great, but it’s not bad either, going for the sleek, synthetics and Euro, lounge/​downtempo-​music-​in-​the-​background atmosphere. The service was also great. From the get-​go, we were warmly greeted by the hostess, the water/​busser, and the waiter, who were all extremely friendly and eager to provide information about the menu, etc on request.
…to be continued…

At first we hated the space, the set-​up and the awful music. HOWEVER, the food and bev (the ancient greek sangria thing) made us forget our initial hesitation.
The lamb sliders were my favorite thing. We also shared the shrimp, dumplings, octopus and kibbe. Beyond the weird ipod mix of buffalo soldier, ben harper and the girl from ipanema, we ended up enjoying the meal thoroughly.
Give it a shot. You’ll be surprised. The menu and space don’t give the food justice.

While on a business trip, some colleagues and I decided to walk around Georgetown and pick a restaurant once there. When we entered Morso, all the Host told us was «Turkish tapas» which sounded different and also a great option given that we wanted to share.
What a good choice we made! We had Lamb, Kibes, Eggplant and 2 or 3 more plates –all of them had a good presentation and were delicious. We accompanied our wonderful meal with good bottle of Israeli wine.
Osmani our waiter provided us with excellent service, he made us a couple of very good recommendations. We had a moment when one person from our party arrived after we ordered and surprisingly, from that point on all upcoming plates had an extra portion so all of us could try everything –this without even requesting it.
A mix of good ambiance, great service and amazing food.

I’m picky when it comes to kebabs and this place got a 10 out of 10 for me! The lamb kebabs were full of flavor and perfectly spiced. The veal and eggplant kebabs were THE BEST! The kibbeh were AMAZING! They need to sell them by the DOZEN! Wonderful and moist. I’m so tired of ordering kibbeh at places and then getting dry, bland rolls of meat. I have never had grillled octopus that tasted so good. Perfectly cooked and not chewy!!! Can’t wait to get some more.

Overall, very good. Highly recommended. Nice surroundings, good service, and terrific food. And they cook till 11:30 PM.
Morso trio — Includes a walnut onion pâté, chicken walnut pâté, and yoghurt with white cheese dip. Very good. Good serving size, meaning items can be shared by two people. $ 11. ⁹⁄₁₀ stars
Coban salad — Onions, tomato, bell pepper, cucumber. Good, but nees more acid from lemon or vinegar; and it needs to sit in this marinate so that the vegetables wilt a bit and the flavors mingle. Generous serving. $ 6. ⁶⁄₁₀ stars
Baby egglplant with walnut stuffing — Very good lemon or vinegar marinade, beautifully presented in nigiri sushi style squares. Good serving size. $ 10. ⁸⁄₁₀
Bean pilaki — Large beans with diced potato and tomato. Good and meltingly tender, but needed more seasoning with salt and possibly dill. Good serving size. $ 8. ⁷⁄₁₀
Fava beans — Lovely tender green favas with diced white cheese and tomato and onions. Good, but needed more acid seasoning. Generous serving. $ 10. ⁷⁄₁₀
Sardines in grape leaves — Tender small fish without bones, grilled nicely. Good, but needed more a more acid flavor from lemon to balance the beautiful fatty fish. Adequate serving size. $ 12. ⁷⁄₁₀
Bread — Fantastic. Super hot tender pockets. $ 0. ⁹⁄₁₀
Wine — Nice selection, but needs to have bottles for under $ 30. Many restaurants that are upscale and highly regarded have such bottles, and this place needs to get that message. ⁵⁄₁₀
Hypocras cocktail — Cinnamon flavored red wine with orange juice on ice. Very good, and unique. $ 8.18 per glass, also in carafes. ⁹⁄₁₀
Limonata Mediterraneo cocktail — Limoncello with raki and prosecco. Good, but slightly too sweet. $ 10.91. ⁷⁄₁₀
Service — Fantastic. Warm, smiling, and attentive. ⁹⁄₁₀
Atmosphere — Chic décor and comfortable seating and spacing. Very enjoyable. However, they need to be careful to not fall into stereotypes of restaurants that cater only to a style-​obsessed crowd, which often spells the doom of such places. They need to market themselves to everyone, including families, in addition to the club-​going demographic.
Also, they need a more diverse music program in addition to the club-​synthesizer sound they have now. And the male staff needs to wear normal pants not jeans. Their hospitality is very good, so hopefully the sylistics will improve with time.

Long Anticipation=High Expectation (LAHE)=Could be more possible to be disappointed.
So I had to consider this LAHE factor before writing a few about my first visit at Morso. Morso express has been opened for months but it took longer for Morso to finally open for business.
The restaurant is not big but tables were well spaced so it didn’t feel too crowded. It didn’t have full-​open kitchen but you can see part of kitchen where the chef prepares his creation.
— Complimentary bread comes with olive oil seasoned with herb and paprika: Sesame seed sprinkled crispy pita bread. It was warm but I think Zaytinya’s pillow-​like-​soft bread wins over Morso’s crispy pita.
— Oven baked shrimp: plump shrimp covered with bubbly Kaiser cheese came out in hot stone plate. Even if the cheese was on top of shrimp, it wasn’t cheesy or creamy. It was more like steamed shrimp in broth covered with cheese. I expected more like Au gratin-​type dish, so it was different than what I expected but the flavor was good. Small portion though.
— Lamb over rice pilaf: a few thin slices of lamb over well-​seasoned pilaf and a few kinds of pickles/​pepper on side. Lamb was perfectly cooked and tasty. The entire dish has many different distinctive flavors of vegetable and pilaf, which made the lamb dish fun to eat. Small portion again.
— Goat cheese and garlic croquette w/​pimento aioli: Nicely fried crispy croquette filled with goat cheese. If you like goat cheese, this will make you happy.
Service: Excellent. Very friendly and attentive. Water and bread gets refilled constantly.
Overall, I enjoyed my visit at Morso, but wished that the portion was a bit bigger… but then it’s in Georgetown. where no one should expect to get big bang for the buck. I might just go to Morso express next time since I can pay less and still get Morso’s flavorful concoction (more sandwiches).
All tapas (hot/​cold) were under $ 10 and the main dishes were under $ 20. So if you like, you can order different things without breaking the bank. Portion size was much smaller than I imagined though.
PS: Please don’t expect big portion (like other kebab places in MD/​VA) because You will be disappointed.

The wraps are pretty good, but the burger with a twist not so much. Having said that, it’s not fast food if you have to wait for over 10 mins for a sandwich and the prices are not very friendly for the amount of food you get. Will try the real sit down place when it opens up.